A bunch of Pajibans reading and reviewing and honoring AlabamaPink.

Maybe it’s the fact that I found this book due to a Felicia Day review on Goodreads but the entire time I was reading this book I was imagining Ms Day playing the smart-talking redheaded elf Raine Benares and it added an extra component to my enjoyment of the book. The series feels like an urban paranormal one in terms of attitude, but the world is a straight up fantasy one. Raine Benares is a seeker – endowed with the magical ability to find lost objects. Because she’s also a member of one of the most notorious crime families in her world, she’s also got a great skill set in terms of retrieving said lost objects and defending herself while on a seeking quest. So basically, she’s your average leather wearing, ass-kicking, knife-wielding, sassy heroine. The kind of character who would be as at home in an RPG as in a fantasy series. What lifts Benares above being a stock character is the same thing that lifts Dragon Age above so many RPGs (at least IMHO) – it’s the sense of fun the writer lavishes on her creation. It’s nearly impossible not to have fun reading this series. It’s a beach read for pale, indoors-y sorts like myself. And because the romance elements are handled so lightly, this is one of the few female-centered urban paranormal novels I can imagine a guy not only reading, but enjoying. (Yeah, there are some smooch-y scenes, but Raine isn’t a character given much to soul-searching so your eyes are not going to be blown back by the force of purple prose about masculine beauty.) It’s really an action-packed adventure story with a few pauses here and there to enjoy some masculine scenery. (What vaginal fantasy book would be complete without at least two love interests for the main gal to consider while she’s saving the world?) This series is the fictional analog of potato chips – nutritionally void but so much fun to eat and impossible to consume one at a time.